


a little sweetness to stir up your life.

by cl3rks



Category: Justified
Genre: Animal Shelter Worker, F/M, Home visits, Possible Spoilers (S6), Swearing, animal adoption, earl is a nervous kid, idk if this will be slow burn or what, we'll find out together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 17:11:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14525370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cl3rks/pseuds/cl3rks
Summary: Earl meant to just be avoiding Carl, but the first door he opened happened to be an animal shelter's front entrance, and the second happened to be the door to the kennels and then, his future.





	a little sweetness to stir up your life.

**Author's Note:**

> i just,,,, really,,,, wanted to write earl with some dogs. i love this kid.

“You don’t even got the money to buy a bag of chips from the gas station, Earl!” Carl sneered angrily, waving his arms around. “That’s why you need in on this job!”

Earl, however, wasn’t focused as they passed an animal shelter. There were cat trees in the spotless windows, the furry critters themselves taking up each little tree's shelf. He noticed that the left side opened into a full feline-room and the right side opened to a waiting room where a few were hunkered around an older looking dog in the middle of the floor.

“Are you listening?” Carl frowned, jabbing at his brother’s shoulder. “Earl?”

“No, I’m not,” Earl replied honestly, grabbing the handle of the shelter before practically ripping the door open, hearing the bell above his head jingle as he stepped out of the warm air to escape his brother. Carl threw his arms up in the air at his brother, storming off in another direction as Earl stood in the welcoming air of the place. As he stood there, his legs moved by themselves to approach the desk that had a little green basket with yet another cat in it. He smiled to himself as the cat stirred, looking up at him. 

He extended a hand and scratched the cat's head, looking for a name somewhere on it. By the time someone responded to the bell jingling, a few more cats had grouped near his feet and a girl emerged from the backroom, a sweet smile on her face as she tucked some loose hair behind her ear.

“Hi! What can I help you with, hon?” 

Earl’s throat went dry as she spoke, her voice polite and even sweeter than her smile. 

(He'd admit, at some point, that she’s the prettiest woman he’s ever seen – well, aside from Ava Crowder… but still. She looked like a dream, wearing jeans, converse, and a t-shirt. She was covered in different animal furs, he could see that from where he was standing, but it made her more appealing.)

“I kinda just came in to escape my brother, uh – but do you have, like, big dogs?”

“Maybe I thought you were gonna ask about the cats,” she replied, her name tag swinging from her pocket as she glanced down at the popcorn-white cat with yellow splotches sitting in the little green basket. “Crisco seems to like you.”

Earl looked down at his feet, the four or five cats pooling around him made him chuckle nervously. He looked back up at her as she leaned over the desk, smiling a little wider as she saw all the cats. “They’re not too bad.”

“They seem to like you…?”

“Earl,” he replied easily, his right hand moving from his side as his left stilled on Crisco. He shook the woman's hand, feeling an awkward tension roll off his shoulders. “Earl Lennon.”

“I’m (Y/N) and, I guess if we're sharing lasts, (L/N).”

“Pretty name,” Earl flirted nervously, pulling his hand back after his slightly cold hand engulfed her warm one. She had been snapping off gloves when she came forward and there was a soapy stain on the edge of her shirt, he assumed she'd been washing an animal before she came up. “But, I was thinking big but… medium isn’t bad, I suppose?”

“Well, are you looking for a hunting dog or a companion? They’re not mutually exclusive, Earl. Although, you seem like the nervous type, I’m sorry to assume, but you do. I’m thinking a mutt for you, I’ve got a young one… no senior needs,” she began walking towards the back, Earl noticing the word _kennels_ written on the door as he stayed where he was. “You comin'?”

He clumsily stepped over all the cats, hearing a stir of meows as he followed the woman.

“So, I’m sure you'd love any of these dogs, especially the big ones, but I like to think it’s more them choosing you, rather than the other way around. They’ve all got big hearts, some are a bit timid, a bit scared, and some are dog-aggressive or even people-aggressive.” She paused for a moment, leading him further and suddenly they were bombarded by barking and whining. She greeted each of the dogs, acting as though she hadn’t clearly _just_ been in there. “I think that’s the fault of the people we rescued them from, though.”

Earl lost time while they were in there, and every single dog tugged on his heart strings. Every scratch behind the ear, every sweet nose bump, every little whine – they all personally touched his soul. However, he reached the far back and saw an enclosure with two dogs who looked almost identical, a beautiful warm brown color. They were both tall and –

“They’re Retriever-Boxer mixes, Kane and Sugar. Unfortunately, their mother Honey is no longer with us, but they were all rescues. She used to be the one camping out in the waiting room before Josie got out there.” (Y/N) gushed, her voice changing in the slightest. “These two have mild temperaments, but Kane gets a bit more worked up than Sugar.”

“Let me guess… they go as a pair, right?”

“Correct, or at least we'd hope. I mean, if you'd like to sit with them, figure it out? We'd still have to conduct a home visit, just to make sure it’s suitable for dogs of their sizes-“

“Yes,” Earl cut in quickly, nodding as his phone chimed. “I'd love to have ‘em both, if I could.”

The shelter worker grinned wide, returning his nod as he stepped closer to the dogs and she went to go get the paperwork. He mentioned he didn’t have the (already) small amount money for them while signing the paperwork and, admittedly, the frown that pulled at her lips made his chest hurt a little but she shook it off and told him they’d be keeping them there, anyway, until the home visit – so it wasn’t an issue, _“besides, the money is just so that we can give you the proper ‘starter kit’ for the animals in question – we have to keep this place open somehow.”_

He had no idea what he was truly setting himself up for, he hadn’t had a dog in years and – shit, with those three pairs of eyes staring him down with all types of sweetness? He couldn’t say no.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed!


End file.
